Matt Holliday heads to the DL with a quadriceps injury. C’mon, Mantle played with no knees for ten years! Have a scotch and get in the lineup! John Jay should see time while Holliday recoups. Worth owning in 12 team leagues and could make a decent sub while Holliday’s out. That’s not to say he could make a decent hoagie. Different things. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Kyle McClellan – Out for at least a couple of weeks with a hip flexor strain. Or it’s hip to be strained, if you’re a kid of the 80’s.

Lance Lynn – Will fill in for McClellan. Decent K-rate in the minors, a few too many walks at times and barely above average stuff. But Dave Duncan once coached a pot of a chili to a 12-5 record, so I went out and grabbed Lynn in an NL-Only league. He could quickly become a decent gamble in mixed leagues, but for now he only has one start guaranteed.

Allen Craig – Didn’t start yesterday, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to hit. He went 1-for-3 with a home run while batting nearly .500 over the last week.

Hanley Ramirez – Always one to take any opportunity to not hustle, Hanley’s waiting until Friday to decide whether to go on the DL. If I had to take a guess, I think he will go on the DL. If you really need speed, I’d grab Bonifacio, who will be playing short in media res.

Brian Matusz – 5 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 3 Ks. He used to be the weak side of the Double Stuff Orioles (with Tillman), but, since his 2nd half ERA last year was 3.63 with a solid K-rate, he’s been the pitcher to own…In deep leagues. In shallower leagues, he’ll be serviceable at times. There’s an outside chance for a breakout, but I’d conservatively expect around a 4.00 ERA overall.

Michael Pineda – 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 7 Ks. I feel like I haven’t talked about Pineda enough. He has more than a K per inning, a WHIP of 1.00 and an ERA of 2.30. Let’s see, that’s better than F-Her, Tommy Hanson and Sabathia. Bingo bango!

Josh Willingham – Yesterday, he hit his third homer in his last six games. The Hammer in Oakland that you can touch and doesn’t wear pants seventeen sizes too big is crazy hot right now.

Clint Barmes – 2-for-5 and he hit a home run on May 30th. For him, that’s hot. Also, I watched him hit yesterday and he looked locked in. Not to mention, I just dropped him in one league so he’s going to spite me.

Brent Lillibridge – 2-for-5 and his 2nd home run in the last five games to go along with a modest five game hitting streak. Playing every day puts him in over his head like Michael J. Fox in The Secret of My Success, but while he’s hitting, what the hey?

David Ortiz – Hit his 4th home run in the last week and he’s hitting .313 on the year. Did he get some of Bartolo Colon’s stem cells injected into him too?

Laynce Nix – Hit his 9th home run yesterday. Yeah, instead of Josh Hamilton in the 2nd round, you could’ve drafted Laynce Nix. Fantasy Baseball: If You’re Not Already Prematurely Balding, It’ll Make You Pull Out Your Hair.

Dan Haren – Lower back spasms caused him to fall to his knees in pain. He screamed, “I feel bad!” then Mark Trumbo put a cape over his shoulders. Haren said later it felt better and he’s waiting to see how it feels on Thursday before pushing his next start.

Erick Aybar – 3-for-4 and his 14th steal. Now batting .315 on the year. He’s a two week hot streak away from being the best shortstop in baseball, even if that’s like being the tallest midget.

Mike Stanton – 3-for-4 with his 12th home run. The other day someone accused me in the comments of not showing enough love to Stanton. I found that offensive since I literally drool every time I watch him bat. On my Trapper Keeper, it says, “I heart Pony Sticks.” That’s what I secretly call Stanton. We have pet names. And I don’t show enough love for him? Over his first 150 games in the majors, 75/33/88/.258/5. At the age of 21, that’s a thing of beauty. If I had to say one player that I think would make the Hall of Fame that has been in the league for only one year, it would be Stanton. He’ll have 500 homers by the time he’s 33. Is that enough love?

Javier Vazquez – 6 IP, 4 ER, 6 baserunners, 5 Ks. Well, he finally started K’ing some hitters, so that’s good. But four earned in six innings isn’t exactly dying your hair blonde and pretending to be Guy Fieri at a local diner.

Cody Ross – 4-for-5 with a steal. Now has two homers and is 7 for his last 13. Does he think it’s the playoffs?

Rajai Davis – 2-for-4, 4 RBIs and his 1st home run. Now hitting near .350 over the last week and 15 steals on the year. For a SAGNOF’er, because of his placement in the lineup, he might set the record for ribbies. Prince Fielder, “Someone say ribbies?!”

Carlos Santana – Indians scored 13 runs and Santana went 0-for-3. Ticker tease! Though, it’s been more like a ticker season. Comatose Indians Fan, “I’ve been asleep for the last two months but I see the Indians have the best record in baseball?! Wow, I can only imagine what Carlos Santana, Sizemore and Choo are doing!” Yeah, not what you think.

Asdrubal Cabrera – 4-for-6, 2 runs, 3 RBIs. Okay, he is the best shortstop as of right now. Fair enough.

Shaun Marcum – 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 baserunners, 7 Ks. Since I’m venting today, someone the other day mentioned how I didn’t say anything when Marcum had a bad last start. He pitched fine, he grooved one to some rookie that no one thought could hit (Brandon Crawford) and he hit a grand slam. He threw a bad pitch, he didn’t throw a bad game.

Nyjer Morgan – 2-for-3 in back-to-back games. He’s really not much better than Gomez, and Gomez isn’t very good, but Morgan is at least hitting.

Vicente Padilla – From the files of, “Yeah, Well, Dur,” Mattingly says Padilla will regain the closer role on Friday when he returns from the DL.

Daniel Murphy – 2-for-4 as he stays sizzling. At least two hits in the past four games. He’s not glamorous, but hot schmotatos rarely are.

Guy countered my offer with his Kennedy/Cruz for my Gio/CarGo. I don’t really want to take this, but I like Cruz and want some opinions on what to do. Do I accept or do I counter? If I counter, what with? Here’s my team:

@Wilsonian: i wouldnt, cruz iz always prone to injury, i’d rather have cargo….

@Steve: yes, pineda will be shut down early most likely this year, i am trying to move phillips tho, haven’t had much luck, he’s a career .275 hitter and has begun his regression back to it, he’s still getting hits but its more of the 1-4 nights than the 3-4 and 2-4 nights….

@Grey: My OF is Kemp, J. Upton, McCutchen, Stanton, Gordon and Cruz. With that depth would you trade any of the top 3 for an ace SP? What level ace…Verlander, Hamels? Would you even trade McCutchen straight up for a Gallardo, Price or Pineda type? thanks

I have Holliday, Heyward, Hanley and Beachy with 1 DL spot so bench space is at a premium. I recently added Alex Gordon at 3B and have Reynolds on the bench. Is he worth holding onto at this point? It’s a 10-team daily league so if I drop him, I can cycle in hot bats at the Util. position.

I have great depth at Shortstop with both Alexei & Starlin but I’ve had a hard time shopping either of them without giving them away.

Yesterday I offered:
Pineda & Starlin

To receive:
Gallardo & Kubel

To a guy that needs a shortstop upgrade and has depth at pitcher.
He turned it down.

I guess for now I’ll just have to hang onto the depth and ride the
Pineda wave as long as he’ll take me. Maybe by the time Pineda is
hitting his innings limit Liriano will be usable from my reserve spot.

Side note: I haven’t seen any mentions recently of Alexei Ramirez
but he has certainly been sizzling at the plate of late. Here are his
numbers from the last 24 games, where he has raised his average
over 50 points to where it now sits at .297:

@artie: this is from last month.. haven’t heard a # as of yet.
“The Mariners will cap rookie starter Michael Pineda at a yet-to-be-determined innings limit this season.
“We’ll come up with a number, maybe another month in,” Mariners pitching coach Carl Willis said. “He’s had four starts, and they’ve been very good starts, but it’s early. … If we see things continuing to go the way they’re going, it will allow us to reasonably put a number on it.” Pineda will be limited to 105 pitches per start. Seattle capped Felix Hernandez at 200 innings — including spring training — during his rookie season in 2006. Expect a similar plan for Pineda. The 22-year-old is 3-1 with a 1.78 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings. He’s the early Rookie of the Year favorite.”

Grey, do we know how many innings he pitched in spring this year? I can’t find it

And to repay the favor: Pineda pitched 17 innings this spring. And Felix, in his first full season, pitched 191.0 innings. In 2005, however, he pitched 84.1 in the majors.

So if Felix is any indication, I don’t think there’s going to be much limiting. If anything, He’ll be shut down two weeks into September aka just as championship weeks are finishing. Worst case, imo, would be shutting him down after August is done.

Really, Cardinals? On Wednesday you announce that Holliday will go on the DL, but you won’t make the move until Thursday? Really? You can’t just go ahead and do it on Wednesday? Really, Tony LaRussa? Do you enjoy annoying fantasy owners? Really, Seth Meyers?

Grey — I’m trying to shop Morneau around as you have repeatedly suggested. If the trade were essentially a package deal where Morneau is replaced by either Dunn, Billy Butler, or Lind, are any of those deals you WOULDN’T make?

The one that is most likely — and the one I’m least enamored with — is for Dunn. Do you still believe he’ll start hitting dingers and get his AVE closer to .240-.250?

In first place right now, and have been offered A-Rod, Torii Hunter and Zach Britton for my CarGo and Justin Morneau. Keeper league, but CarGo would be the only one that would have any value and even then, it’s only for one more year. My 3B spot is currently manned by the underwhelming Casey McGehee. Thoughts on deal?

@Grey: currently tied for 1st place in my AL only dynasty keeper. If i get one more good pitcher i should be able to run away with it. i can’t really give up any bats though, so im considering the following:

I know Montero isn’t going to do much this year, but the thought of having both him and Arencibia as keepers for the next 5 years at $2 a piece is making me doubt this trade. Is the upgrade of Lester (vs Duffy and Holland) worth me not having 40+HR’s from the catcher position for the next 5 years? I’m all about going for it this year, i just don’t know about this one…

I really have an addiction for SP eligible guys with closer jobs in leagues where I set my lineups daily. I can play my regular three guys and always have my fourth in an SP slot, in effect, increasing my save chances by 33%. Ok, that was incredibly boring but justifies my question(s). Is Padilla “the closer” in LA? If so, is it worth dropping Cody Ross, Bernadina, Des Jennings or Beachy for?

I play in a 15 team $$ keeper league, first year, and had a horrendous draft including drafting dunn, uggla, choo, pujols, figgins, bossman jr. I have made 22 trades so far, might be a record, over 60 adds, i def have ADD, and have assembled the following squad:

Ha! Good point. I guess if you aren’t starting Chacin in SF where ya gonna start him. It’s just that I’m a LaRuss Cannon. I’m that guy that tinkers with his team so much he manages them into oblivion. Take Tuesday night:

Started Ian Kennedy at home vs. Florida:
5IP/0W/4k/5.4ERA/1.6WHIP

Benched Zack Grienke in Cinnci and Mat Latos in the ATL and missed:
12IP/2W/13k/3ERA/1.5WHIP

Like missing a 2 footer on the first hole, that shit gets in your head and you question everything thereafter.

Obviously Tulo will pick it up more before the end of the year and Andrus is a pretty big downgrade, but my other SP’s are: Kershaw, Morrow, Bumgarner, Matusz, so I could really use some help there. Still have Pence, Lind, Texeira, and Cano types for hitters.

Preseason you had Ricky at 32 and CJ at 49. That’s a pretty sizable difference. Now you got CJ ahead of Ricky? I’m worried about CJs walks and durability. Although I also hate how unreliable Ricky can be.

Would you trade Grady, Pence and Billingsley for Matt Holiday, Choo and Putz? I might need the saves more than what Bills gives me, which is a some K’s and a headache every week cause I never know when to start him…